Chinese media is skeptical over agreement with Ukraine on Antonov aircraft

Thursday, September 8, 2016 6:56:00 AM

The Chinese company Aerospace Industry Corporation of China (AICC), which has become party to the agreement with the Ukrainian state enterprise Antonov, is unable to produce planes of this level. Investigative journalists from the Chinese newspaper Toutiao reported on AICC’s viability.

Toutiao claims that according to the documents this Chinese company looks more like a fictitious firm than a large-scale enterprise. According to them, Aerospace Industry Corporation of China was registered in Hong Kong only in 2012, although on the official website of this private company it is stated that the year of registration is 2010. Another item of suspicion pointed out by the Chinese media is that the company’s officially authorized capital amounts to only 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, not 500 million Hong Kong dollars, as stated on their website.

At the same time the sole shareholder of the company is a Chinese citizen, Zhang Tsyaohuey. His name appears in the documents of several other enterprises of the aviation industry, registered on the same address in Beijing. The Chairman of AICC is a Chinese citizen named Zhang Yousheng, who previously also worked at the companies where Zhang Tsyaohuey was a founder. Using available contact details, Toutiao’s journalists were unable to contact any representative of the enterprises that were founded by Zhang Tsyaohuey.

However, the greatest suspicion came to bear on the virtual absence of company’s focus on aircraft production. The company's website stated that the Aerospace Industry Corporation of China previously only imported and supplied equipment for airports.

Chinese media note that military engineers and aviation experts of the country are concerned with the lack of the necessary infrastructure for the claimed production of the aircraft of the level of Mriya, currently the sole existing AN-225. According to them, the AICC plants in Luzhou and Guigang cities are unlikely to be able to execute the order because they lack the appropriate facilities and because the location of the cities is unsuitable for testing the aircraft, as well as inconvenient for the delivery of large parts.

Journalists also emphasize the fact that earlier information about the Aerospace Industry Corporation of China almost did not appear in the media, and only three months before the announced agreement, the company launched a vigorous activity in the information space.

On August 30th, it became known that AICC plans to set up production of the world's largest transport aircraft, the An-225 Mriya.